Messy Liberation: Feminist Conversations about Politics and Pop Culture

New year, same bullshit? In this first episode of the year, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown tear into the pressure cooker that is “New Year, New You”—and why it’s a capitalist scam designed to make you feel broken so someone else can profit.

They talk honestly about aging, bodies, wrinkles, weight loss drugs, and the impossible beauty standards women are asked to carry—especially as hyper-thin culture makes its deeply unwelcomed comeback. Becky and Taina reflect on what it means to age in public, to feel tenderness toward softness, greys, and change, and to reject the idea that looking older is a personal failure.

The conversation also widens to business: the pressure to “start fresh” every January, the myth of endless growth, and the exhausting reality that there is no finish line—just maintenance, repetition, and showing up again. They share how they’re approaching the year differently: slower, more collaboratively, more honestly, and more in tune with their actual capacity.

This episode is a permission slip to stop reinventing yourself on capitalism’s timeline and start listening to your own body, rhythms, and seasons instead.

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Our friend Nicole just dropped the trailer for her new podcast Just Rest — and we're SOOO excited!

We’re both part of the Feminist Podcast Collective, and watching this show come to life has been such a joy. Just Rest is for people who care deeply, work hard, and are tired of being told burnout is just the price of caring.

This podcast is all about rest as resistance, sustainable change, and staying human in a grind-obsessed world. It’s thoughtful, grounded, and deeply compassionate — the kind of show that feels like a long exhale.

Give the trailer a listen, then rate & review if it resonates. It makes a huge difference for indie, values-driven podcasts.

🎧 https://justrest.buzzsprout.com

As 2025 winds down, Becky and Taina sit with the mess—grief, burnout, political devastation, small joys, and the complicated work of staying human inside it all. This isn’t an episode about toxic optimism or shiny New Year’s resolutions. It’s about telling the truth: some years are brutal. Some losses are enormous. And still, we have to find ways to keep living.

In this end-of-year reflection, they talk candidly about personal and collective loss, fluctuating capacity, negativity bias, and the practice of holding multiple truths at once. They explore what it means to scale expectations down (way down), to let “10% better” be enough, and to build rituals that help us remember that not everything is awful—even when the world feels like it is.

This episode is an invitation to stop demanding perfection from yourself, to release the fantasy of static capacity, and to enter the new year with honesty, presence, and gentleness.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why 2025 felt like a year of loss—personally, politically, and collectively
• Grief, privilege, and the discomfort of holding both at the same time
• The myth of static capacity and why fluctuating energy is deeply human
• Spoon theory, disability wisdom, and why you can’t “borrow” energy from the future
• Negativity bias and why our brains remember the worst moments most clearly
• Micro vs. macro living: how daily life is different from the headlines
• Practices for tracking how days actually feel (not how we assume they felt)
• Holding multiple emotions at once—anger and love, grief and joy
• Why “10% better” might be the most radical New Year’s intention available
• Creating spaciousness during the holidays without disappearing entirely

🎤 WE'RE PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/

Some days aren’t fixable. They aren’t mindset problems. They aren’t invitations to “reframe.” They’re just heavy, painful, vulnerable days—and pretending otherwise only makes them worse.

In this episode, Becky and Taina talk honestly about what it looks like to live inside a bad day instead of trying to hustle your way out of it. From chronic pain and perimenopause to caregiving, grief, financial stress, and the impossible emotional math of deciding when it’s time to let go, this conversation holds the mess without trying to clean it up too fast.

This is an episode about asking for help when it feels like failure. About how self-gaslighting drains more energy than rest ever could. About the quiet power of naming your limits—and letting them be real.

If you’re feeling raw, overwhelmed, or stretched thin right now, this one’s for you.

In this episode, we talk about:
• Why some days can’t be “turned around” without doing more harm
• Chronic pain, perimenopause, and the emotional toll of living in a body that hurts
• The vulnerability hangover that comes after creating something meaningful
• How comparison and money talk can activate shame—even in values-aligned spaces
• Why asking for help can feel like failure, concession, or loss of power
• Parenting, partnership, and the guilt of needing rest
• Caregiving grief: loving someone (or a pet) while knowing the end is coming
• The impossible responsibility of deciding when to say goodbye
• Avoidance, coping, and why comfort isn’t the same thing as denial
• Letting a day be bad—and why that can actually prevent a spiral

If today feels heavy, you’re not broken—and you’re definitely not alone. Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is call it a bad day, ask for help, and let yourself rest without earning it.

🎧 Messy Liberation is a proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, supporting independent, values-aligned shows and the people who make them. Learn more at: https://feministpodcasterscollective.com

This week’s episode goes straight for the tender spots—disability, guilt, surrender, messy healing, cultural expectations, accountability, and, yes… Beyoncé. It’s one of those conversations that reminds you why we started this show in the first place: to tell the truth about being human in a world that keeps demanding performance.

Taina opens with a vulnerable (and infuriatingly relatable) mess about navigating life with a disability while recovering from intense medical trauma, and the complicated guilt that comes with needing care instead of giving it. Becky names what’s underneath it all: grief for the life we thought we’d have. What follows is a wide-open, nuanced conversation about surrender, agency, capitalism’s lies about productivity, and the lifelong work of unlearning parentification. 

From there, we spiral beautifully into:

• What accountability actually looks like (BD Wong, RF Kuang, publishing vs. Hollywood power, and why identity + industry shape what’s possible)
• How nuance gets flattened on the internet, and why that harms marginalized people most
• Jay-Z and Beyoncé attending a Brandy concert and the absolutely chaotic discourse about whether they “should” have said hi (Ray J… buddy… please log off)
• Spotify Wrapped: joy, community, surveillance capitalism, FOMO, manipulation, and why we’ll still post ours anyway
• The ways pop culture reveals our own longing to belong—and the pressure to be ethically perfect inside systems built on exploitation

It’s tender. It’s political. It’s petty. It’s deeply liberatory. In other words: peak Messy Liberation.

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We didn't record a new show this week, but we're happy to share this episode of The Empowered & Embodied Show with Taina Brown. It's so good! Enjoy!

This week’s episode of Messy Liberation is exactly what the name promises: deeply human, a little chaotic, politically charged, creatively fueled, and threaded with the kind of vulnerability most people only share with their therapist.

Becky opens up about the messy joy and stomach-turning self-doubt of writing her first book — including imposter syndrome, fears of co-opting liberatory work, the ethics of citation, and the tension between wanting to be seen and fearing the inevitable rejection that visibility invites.

Then Taina dives into her own mess: the viral rumor about Donald Trump allegedly performing a sexual act on Bill Clinton (yes, really), the cultural fallout, the misogyny underneath homophobia, and the horrifying normalization of sexual violence in politics and media.

It’s an episode that moves from book-writing anxiety… to Brene Brown… to Epstein… to consent… to cult dynamics… to “underage women” as a media phrase… to slow-burn lesbian jokes… to the existential absurdity of trying to hold nuance in a collapsing empire.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The behind-the-scenes process of writing Becky’s liberatory business book
• Imposter syndrome, power, privilege, and the fear of getting it wrong
• The ethics of citation, accountability, and writing through a white lens
• Why visibility feels both intoxicating and terrifying
• How to engage in liberatory work without replicating harm
• The alleged Trump/Clinton sexual scandal and why it’s blowing up online
• Misogyny, homophobia, femininity-as-weakness, and power dynamics
• Why the phrase “underage women” is a dangerous media trap
• The GOP’s terrifying attempt to normalize sexual violence
• Laughing at the absurdity as a survival strategy
• Updates from last week’s messes (the school-board situation + relationship boundaries)
• The difference between mess that moves us forward and mess that destroys democracy

Resources + Mentions

• "Emergent Strategy" by adrienne maree brown
• The Messy Liberation Coaches Circle

🎤 Proud members of The Feminist Podcasters Collective; join us if you have a podcast at http://feministpodcastcollective.com/

In this week’s episode, Becky and Taina dive straight into the deep end of real-life mess: school-district politics, equity vs. “equality,” the exhausting reality of advocating inside systems designed to fail kids, and the tender, complicated terrain of queer marriage, desire, and boundaries. This one is personal, raw, a little chaotic, and very us.

Becky shares what it’s like preparing to speak at a school board meeting about inequitable resource distribution in her son’s district — while naming the discomfort of doing that work as a white parent in a predominantly white room. Then Taina opens up about the complexities of being pansexual, married to a lesbian wife, and navigating attraction, boundaries, and emotional intimacy when your partner is also your best friend.

In This Episode, We Discuss:
• The messy reality of advocating for equity in a school system still clinging to “equal” funding
• Why diversity in schools matters — and what’s at risk when privileged families leave
• The tension of being a group of white moms pushing for equity without falling into saviorism
• How to strategically communicate about equity in political spaces
• The emotional labor of teachers and staff in under-resou🎤rced schools
• Taina’s coming-out journey, late blooming, and the truth about queer identity development
• What happens when you marry the first person you date (and why that’s not the red flag people think it is)
• Navigating attraction, boundaries, and “is this appropriate to say to my wife?” moments
• Why partners cannot and should not be expected to meet every emotional need
• Cheesecake, green beans, and other metaphors we’ll never be able to forget

🎤 Proud members of the Feminist Podcasters Collective — join us at: https://feministpodcasterscollective.com

This week, Becky and Taina sit down with client experience designer and “business cousin” Portia Michele Osumaré for a liberatory conversation about the beauty of being “messy”—and why it’s not something to fix. Together they explore what it means to live outside the boxes that capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy build for us.

From being multi-hyphenate creatives to dismantling productivity culture, this conversation dives into queerness, control, and community—and how letting yourself be delightfully, unapologetically human can actually make your work (and your joy) more sustainable.

Portia reminds us that liberation isn’t theoretical; it’s something we practice every day—in our businesses, our relationships, and even the way we talk about money, success, and each other.

Connect with Portia:

• The Business Cousins Collective
• Follow Portia on Instagram

Discussed in this episode:

• Redefining “messy” as freedom, not failure
• The power of multi-hyphenate creativity
• Queerness as a practice of expansion and self-creation
• How control, order, and “clean” systems uphold oppression
• Building liberatory business models rooted in joy and humanity
• Community as a messy, necessary space for collective growth

Resources mentioned:

• Lucille Clifton, “won’t you celebrate with me”
• Maya Angelou, “Be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”
• Ocean Vuong on how being queer saved his life

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Becky and Taina try something new in this episode—a looser, more conversational format inspired by their friends from BRB, Crying. Each host brings a “messy situation” to unpack together.

Taina starts with a real-life scare: police chasing a man through her backyard in Baltimore. The conversation unfolds into a raw discussion about policing, white conditioning, racialized fear, and what “abolish the police” really means. Together, they pull apart the myths of “good cops” and community safety, tracing policing back to its roots in slavery and exploring what real care-centered community safety could look like.

Then Becky brings her own messy topic: a threads debate about whether all landlords are unethical. As a small-scale landlord herself, she wrestles with her own complicity in a capitalist system while still trying to do right by her tenant. The pair examine how housing, like policing, reflects deeper systemic issues—and why nuance matters when we talk about ethics and liberation.

The conversation winds into reflections on whiteness, masculinity, and how even our attempts to “opt out” of oppressive systems (like calling yourself a “non-practicing white”) can be another form of avoidance. This one is layered, uncomfortable, and exactly the kind of conversation Messy Liberation is built for.

🧠 Themes

• The conditioning of fear and trust around policing
• How racialized power shows up even in “liberal” white responses
• The difference between policing and community accountability
• Ethical gray areas in housing and capitalism
• Why abolition is about care, not chaos
• Reckoning with privilege, whiteness, and the myth of neutrality

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Designer Terrence Williams
• The BRB, Crying podcast

🎤 WE ARE PROUD MEMBFRS OF THE FEMINIST PODCAST COLLECTIVE